


Hope

by TransformersG1fan271



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: I love the rep so much, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-13
Updated: 2016-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-08 12:46:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7758403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TransformersG1fan271/pseuds/TransformersG1fan271
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A certain 200 year old salesman finds hope once again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope

**Author's Note:**

> If you've seen this before it's because I posted it on my Deviantart :3  
> Link --> transformersg1fan271.deviantart.com
> 
>  
> 
> Also this was my first Fallout 4 fanfic, if you can tell by my okay-ish writing.  
> :3

He couldn’t even remember his name. Weird, right?  
  
Though he supposed Vault-Tec Rep would work well enough, it was better than some of those ridiculous Raider names, and settled on just calling himself Tec for short. Then again, it didn’t matter as no one really associated with him due to his Ghoulish nature, even in Goodneighbor. So it was no wonder he jumped at the chance to move out to Sanctuary when the woman they called the Sole Survivor came across him late one night, offering a sweet smile and a comforting hand on his shoulder. So some of the other settlers didn’t warm up to him and that was okay because the Survivor promised to come visit him after he got settled in. He saw her return two days later, exhausted and holding an injured arm but looking happy about something as she returned to her former home to get patched up by that creepy robot. Tec fiddled with his slightly boney hands as he thought about going to check on her, but decided against it and finished tending to some crops and his trade stand before turning in for the night at the house furthest from the Vault nearby. Instead of sleeping he stared at the worn metal ceiling above, still able to recall the bright and pristine colors it had once been before the nuclear fallout and time had taken its toll. Tec sat up when he heard footsteps outside the house, worn door creaking open slowly as the person tried to keep the noise down from the rusting hinges.  
  
 _”Hello? May I come in?”_ He wasn’t expecting to hear _her_ voice calling out.  
  
 _”Please, by all means.”_ Tec got up and joined the Survivor in the tattered living room, dusting off his slacks and white button up shirt that acted as his sleepwear. _”Is there something I can help you with?”_  
  
He didn’t mean to sound a bit desperate in his greeting, but he was expecting her not to visit as she had promised, and to see her standing there with that same smile from earlier did make him feel…joy.  
  
 _”I didn’t mean to wake you, but I wanted to check up on you.”_ There was that smile again, one that made him almost forget all those years of loneliness and abject despair. _”I also wanted to ask your name…I never did hear you say what it was…before.”_ He chuckled softly, rubbing his right arm with a shrug.  
  
 _”I wish I could tell you m’am. But that truth is, I’ve forgotten it…it’s been a long 200 years.”_  
  
 _”Oh…I’m so sorry…”_ The concern and pity on her face made him chuckle softly again, the two taking a seat on the dusty but still functional leather chairs facing a tv that wasn’t quite working just yet. _”I still can’t get over that fact that it’s been so long…seems like just yesterday I was talking to you…and worrying about what to get down at the market…”_  
  
 _”It…Would you mind if I got some things off my chest? I-I don’t want to bother you or anything, it’s just been a while since I’ve had a conversation with someone, anyone, that doesn’t want to shoot me or just take the time to sit down and listen.”_ He didn’t realize he was rambling, that smile making Tec feel absolutely comfortable and relaxed enough to talk.  
  
 _”I’m all ears, um…?”_  
  
 _”Tec. It’s the name I decided on since everyone called me Vault-Tec Rep for the first few years after the bombs fell.”_ The Survivor nodded softly and waited patiently, patiently!, for him to gather his thoughts and nerves.  
  
 _”The day they fell…I don’t remember a lot of it. I remember diving into some cellar and closing the door shut…I heard screaming and then there was just heat everywhere for what seemed like forever before it died down I think a few hours later, I’m not sure because I ended up passing out. I didn’t leave for a few days, the family who had owned the cellar stocked it some food and water so I just rationed it all out until it was gone and I had to leave. The silence…there was nothing left, no trees, no birds, just nothing. All the soldiers that had guarded the Vault, most of them were dead save for two men who were just sitting in the guard booth muttering about waiting for their orders. I think they died there, I haven’t gone up that way since I failed getting a way into the Vault. I went to Concord and saw a bunch of survivors, and we all did our best to set up homes and scavenge food for everyone to eat. It…it was bad. There were just bodies everywhere, and we had to all pull shifts to bury them in the hillside while writing down names if any family had survived to come looking for them. Most of the time they were all dead…oh god…”_ Tec covered his face with his hands with a deep sigh, the memories of the dead or dying bodies he had handled popping up and almost overwhelming him had a gentle hand on his shoulder not steadied him. For a few minutes they sat in silence, the only noises being the nearby water rushing downstream or the odd creaking of the metal above them.  
  
 _”I’m sorry…those first few weeks were hard as everyone tried to just contact anyone else they knew, looking for some sort of sign. It was a month or two later when it started happening. I remember a little girl named Tracy, she was the first to fall to radiation poisoning and thankfully it was in her sleep. That’s when we all knew…see a lot of us had been feeling aches and had general things like upset stomachs and all that sort of stuff, but we figured it was just stress. I think we all knew though…we just didn’t want to come to terms with it, and tried to encourage ourselves into thinking we just had a cold or something. People started to fall to it, but some of us…well…”_ He motioned to himself with a bitter smile, red eyes glancing out a hole in the wall across from him.  
  
 _”It started with small things, my skin turning redder as if I had a sunburn with each passing week. I felt aches all over and would throw up any of the purified water we would manage to scrounge up, yet irradiated water went down as anything fresh would. Skin started to fall off a month in, and it burned at first when I would shower or had to grab things, to the point where I spent a week in bed until it all came off. Funny enough I kept my hair, but I’m not going to curse that.”_ He knocked on the wood of the chair with a shrug, after all Tec had always been superstitious and he wasn’t going to go against those beliefs anytime soon. _“I didn’t learn about the radiation effects until I was driven out by some Raiders about two years later, and ever since then I’ve wandered all around the Commonwealth alone. I never thought I would come across someone I knew, let alone someone that I convinced to go into a Vault.”_ He looked back at the Survivor, who had another look of pity on her face.  
  
 _”I never thought I would come across someone I knew either…I just knew I had to leave the Vault and find my son. You don’t know how happy I was to see you.”_  
  
 _”You were really happy to see me?”_ Tec hadn’t expected that answer, no one liked him particularly before the bombs fell and especially afterwards, but here was the Survivor who did and she was giving him that smile he liked again.   
  
_”Yes, I really am Tec. Would you like to talk to me about something else?”_ He nodded a bit eagerly and started to talk about the many encounters he has had over the years, again happy to have someone listening and giving their input to his tales. By morning the two were on the couch, the Ghoul holding the sleeping Vault dweller with a smile on his face. They had moved to an old couch near four in the morning when he noticed the Survivor was having a hard time staying awake, and she ended up falling asleep against him despite telling him she was fine. So here he was holding the sleeping woman, Tec sighing as he glanced up at the worn roof with another smile as he felt the happiest he had been in over 200 years. Maybe he _did_ have something to thank Vault-Tec for, even if it took a long time for this good thing to happen.


End file.
